Thursday, January 31, 2013

When the Church Stops Praying

Outreach recently spoke
with Mark Batterson to discuss a wide assortment of issues, including the
challenges of taking the Gospel into the culture of Washington D.C., the
lessons he's learned about prayer from his most recent book, The Circle Maker, and what it means to be a "current" church in our
ever-changing culture. Here's a glimpse into the conversation. Check out more
from our Nov/Dec issue here.

What are the most important ministry lessons
you’ve learned this year?

We’re not trying to grow a church, we’re trying to bless a city,
and when you bless a city then God grows His church. And I think that’s gotten
into our DNA over the last year.

You know how you can read a verse in the Bible a thousand times,
but then one day the full force of it hits you and it’s like this revelation.
This little statement Jesus made, “I will build my church”… I’ve heard that a
thousand times, but I think it hit me this year.

My job is not to build the church.

It’s a little thing, but it’s been big for me. I’ve shared that
in some settings with pastors and I think it’s been real freeing. We need to
remind ourselves, it’s His church—He’s the one who will build it, and if we can
stay out of the way, then some great things are going to happen.

Prayer has also played a big part.

I feel like prayer is the
difference between the best you can do and the best God can do.

So if we’re not praying, then the best we can
do is the best we can do, and that’s not good enough. When we get on our knees,
the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting. Prayer creates the culture and gives
people a heart for evangelism, because when you get into God’s presence, you
start to get His heartbeat.

That’s been the game-changer for us this year.

In your recent book,The Circle Maker, you talk about the
important transformation of becoming a praying church. What does that look like
for National Community?

You can delegate a lot of things, but you can’t delegate prayer.
The Lord convicted me out of Acts 6—when the church leaders were delegating
stuff so they could be in the Word and in prayer.

I love conferences. I’m a conference junkie, but I’d rather have
one God-idea than a thousand good ideas. You can go to conferences and get a
good idea, but you’re not going to get a God-idea there—you get that by being
in the presence of God and getting into prayer.

WhenThe Circle Makercame out, I had this
thriving personal prayer life, but I realized I hadn’t led the church
corporately into that. So we started doing these 7:14 a.m. prayer meetings
(based on 2 Chronicles 7:14), and I realized it was changing things.

I don’t know if it took me writing a book on prayer to realize
how far short I had fallen—to kind of wake up to the reality. I felt a sense of
responsibility that I better make sure I’m not just leading the way in my
personal prayer life—I better be leading the way corporately.

What happens if National Community Church
stops praying?

Wow! I think the very first thing that comes to mind is we would
get bored. Soren Kirkegaard said boredom is kind of the ultimate sin.

I don’t think you can live a Spirit-led life and be bored at the
same time. So when you stop praying it takes the supernatural element out of
what we’re doing and the church becomes a club.

There’s no conviction of the Holy Spirit, no miracles—then the
church stops being a movement and becomes a museum to what God has done in the
past.

If you want God to do something new, you can’t keep doing the
same old thing. You have to do something different, and I think prayer is the
difference between you fighting for God and God fighting for you.

So if we stop praying, we’re on our own and I don’t think we’re
going to get very far.

When you start praying it begins to create some of that momentum
you can’t manufacture—it’s God beginning to move.

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The Sunken Church

This blog follows the life, ministry and adventures of the Casey family. We were missionaries in Ancona, Italy from 2000 until 2011. We are now adventuring in the US of A, experimenting with running a business, growing a garden, raising a family and challenging the Church to break outside the box and adopt new forms to reach a new generation with the truth of the Gospel.

di Ancona

About Me

Born in Santiago, Chile I have grown up on the move - lived in some 15 different homes. I am a 'word' person - enjoying almost anything to do with books and literature. I love exploring God's great world and helping people find their place in it.

sunken

The story goes like this:

There once was a church down by the port in Ancona, Italy. With the passing of time, shaken by earthquakes and beaten by the winds, the foundations of the church crumbled and the church toppled into the sea. A friend of ours shared with us that she remembers, as a little girl, playing along the pier and seeing the remains of the church under the water. She remembers seeing the cross from the top of the church under the surface. She told us that some say that if the wind was strong enough and the waves choppy enough, you could even hear the bells...

The story leads to this question:

If we were to raise her out of the water, if we were to restore her completely to what she was originally intended to be...what would she look like? If we were to remove her from all the traditions that humankind has surrounded her with and drowned her in...who would she be?